The Big Shift: Baby boomers wanting to make a difference move from for-profit to nonprofit jobs with greater social impact

Ben Brink/The OregonianAfter 27 years working in wealth management for major banks, Kathryn Calcagno wanted a job that had greater social impact. So she transitioned into the nonprofit world and now works for the Brian Grant Foundation.

Kathryn Calcagno saw advantages to her job as a wealth management
consultant at Wells Fargo Bank. She had a six-figure salary, a
2,500-square-foot Portland house and a membership at Pumpkin Ridge Golf
Club.

But Calcagno also was stressed, overworked and longing to shape the
world beyond helping people achieve financial security. So in January,
after 27 years with banks, she rewired her ambitions and took a job as
executive development director for a year-old nonprofit -- the Brian
Grant Foundation, run by the former Trail Blazer to educate the public
about Parkinson's disease.

"I make probably a third or a quarter of what I used to make," said
Calcagno, a well-dressed 50-year-old with a confidence honed in the
corporate world. "And I've had to reduce my standard of living. But
working for Brian has been worth it. I can tell you I am completely
happy and can't believe I got this lucky."

It's not an easy leap, said Freedman and Calcagno: It requires patience, sacrifices and recalibrated professional expectations.

"There's been a return to one's roots," said Freedman, who talked about
the trend the week before last at Powell's Books in Beaverton. "I don't
think people are storming the barricades like when they were 19. But
there is a spirit of trying to leave the world better off than we found
it."

Freedman is the author of three other books on baby boomers and social
entrepreneurship, and the founder of Experience Corps, a nonprofit that
enlists people older than 55 as literacy tutors in public schools. For
more than a decade, Freedman has been theorizing about why some of the
country's roughly 77 million baby boomers give up high-paying jobs or
refuse to coast into retirement.

Encore fellowships: Started by Civic Ventures in Silicon Valley in 2009 and now in four states, including Oregon. Participants receive a stipend to work for a nonprofit. Social Venture Partners Portland oversees the local program. Learm more at svpportland.org.

"A new life stage"

For one, boomers are still idealistic, Freedman said. People also are living longer, and some work out of necessity.

"It involves the creation of a new life stage," Freedman said. "What's
happening now is that this group is living out a vision for this period
that is beautiful. People will look forward to getting to it instead of
dreading it."

The program matches nonprofits with professionals in finance, high-tech
and other fields. Participants receive a $20,000 stipend for 1,000 hours
of work over six months to a year. The nonprofit gets expertise, and
the professional gets a taste of nonprofit work.

But only four states, including Oregon, offer the fellowships. The local
program -- managed by Social Venture Partners Portland, a nonprofit
that promotes philanthropy among high-achieving baby boomers -- is just
emerging. Executive Director Mark Holloway said the first fellowships
will be announced in June.

That means most people find another path. Calcagno, for one, volunteered at the Grant Foundation before taking a job.

Mark Noonan, a 57-year-old Portlander profiled in Freedman's book, made a
good living as a computer engineering manager for 30 years at companies
such as Intel and RadiSys. But after his wife died in an accident in
2004 while he was on a business trip in China, Noonan felt lost.

In 2006, Noonan enrolled at Portland Community College and got an
associate degree in gerontology. He completed internships, including one
at Elders in Action, a Portland nonprofit advocacy group. That led to a
job; now Noonan is in his fourth year at Elders and is volunteer and
social media manager.

Like Calcagno, Noonan makes "radically" less money and has had to
simplify his life. But it's been worth it. "My emotional well-being has
prospered," he said.

Starting over

Giving up authority is another factor. "You may have to start at the
bottom," Noonan said. "I leveraged off my years of direct management
experience, but that didn't initially help me get in. My boss is also
34, and she's been at Elders for some time. The whole dynamics here are
different."

For Bija Gutoff, who left a lucrative 20-year career as a freelance
writer for clients such as Apple and Microsoft to become a senior writer
and editor at Mercy Corps, moving to a nonprofit also meant working
with other people daily for the first time.

"As a freelancer, it was solitary work," said Gutoff, 54, who joined
Mercy Corps four years ago. "Here I'm part of something that's doing
bigger work than what I do on my own. But that comes with the challenge
of being part of a team that's more social."

Holloway, the Social Venture Partners director, said baby boomers aren't
the only ones inspired by 1960s idealism. He said people under 40 are
making the leap, too. That includes him.

Holloway, 39, is a business school graduate who spent five years at the
Moreau Seminary at the University of Notre Dame before embracing
nonprofit work. He's been at Social Venture for four years.

"I think the stark difference between boomers and younger people is
balance," he said. "Boomers got fully involved with work. But what I see
in people under 40 is the real need to work hard but also to get
something done for the community. Younger generations are doing what the
boomers wanted to do."